Now that the Chicago Bears have scorned Portage’s bid to build a stadium on the city’s north side, the Redevelopment Commission plans to repackage the site before offering it to other developers.
The RDC owns about 200 acres across about 25 parcels in the area it pitched as Halas Harbor. Consultant Bill Rathjen, of McColly Real Estate, persuaded the RDC on Thursday to smoosh the parcels together into four new units, following natural boundaries.
“We need to replat the entire area north of the river to create a usable plat with easements and roadways and everything on it so when we go to a customer that’s going to develop it, they know what land they have,” he said.
The Burns Parkway extension will run from the southeast corner of the property to the northwest. NIPSCO has an easement that runs from the opposite corners.
“If you can think of it as an X, those are the four units we’re going to create,” Rathjen said.
The city’s new north side sewer interceptor crosses 15 of the existing properties, so those easements will be put into the four new parcels. “Easements are so much easier to do if they’re four parcels.”
“Developers don’t want to deal with multiple parcels. They want to deal with one,” Redevelopment Director Dan Botich said.
RDC attorney Scott McClure said it will help the city, too. “The cleaner this is now, the easier it’s going to be not only for the purchaser but for city staff, city utilities,” to decide where to put roadways and other infrastructure, he said.
When the legal work for the four new parcels is finished, the RDC plans to request proposals from developers for the site.
“Nothing would stop a future buyer from buying all four or three or two,” Mayor Austin Bonta said.
Portage Township School Board member Wilma Vazquez, a nonvoting member of the RDC, asked how big each might be. “I think it’s early to answer that,” Rathjen said.
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The legal work is expected to cost up to $100,000.
A similar process is happening in the new downtown the city is creating, in the area Botich refers to as Promenade. “It’s the same exact approach, except instead of being 40 to 45 acres, we’re dealing with hundreds of acres,” he said.
The RDC is acquiring properties to create a downtown streetscape in what’s left of the Portage Mall, creating an alley behind the remaining businesses and a street with better parking in front of them. “We did close the first one. We have six more to go,” Rathjen said.
The RDC is also planning to request proposals for a Portage youth complex, allowing ballfields in what will become the city’s new downtown to be relocated so other development can happen there.
“The city team has spent a lot of time working through this idea, and it’s finally on the agenda to see if we can get this moving forward,” McClure said.
The RDC also approved allowing a company to bring an airport shuttle back to Portage, initially using the parking lot at 6100 Southport Road, where the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission and Northwest Indiana Forum are based, to be used for overnight parking for it.
Bonta, who is NIRPC’s chairman this year, said there’s plenty of extra space in the parking lot even when NIRPC has its full commission meetings.
If the parking lot begins to get crowded, that will be a sign for the shuttle service to find another location in Portage, Bonta said.
“I think it’s a great space to bring an airport shuttle back to Portage,” he said.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.